[024] Martin Lee Makes
Front Page Of Oriental Daily (07/20/2008) (Oriental
Daily;
The Sun) [Note: The largest circulation newspaper in Hong Kong
devotes a radio interview on its front page]

[in translation]

Former Hong Kong Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming has the
nickname "Chinese Traitor Lee." Since retiring from the Legislative
Council, he is gradually showing his true face as Hong Kong's Lee Teng-hui.
Yesterday, he disclosed that he admires the last Hong Kong governor Chris
Patten (who has the nickname of 'sinner who deserves to be condemned for a
thousand generations') the most. He also hinted that the four
second-ladder Democratic Party members running in the upcoming Legislative
Council elections have neither future nor hope. He expressed his
praise and support for the competitor Civic Party. Thus, he was
behaving exactly like former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui, who expressed
his nostalgia for the Japanese occupation era and betrayed his own
Nationalist Party to support the Democratic Progress Party's Chen Shui-bian.

Yesterday, Martin Lee was interviewed on the RTHK radio show <Training
Class for Political Novices>. When asked which Hong Kong governor or
chief executive he admired the most among those with whom he served, he said
"The sinner who deserves to be condemned by a thousand generations" without
hesitating. The program host asked if Lee was referring to Chris
Patten? He said yes, and he praised Patten for lighting up the flame
for democratic development in Hong Kong which cannot be put out by anyone
now. Chris Patten was the last governor of Hong Kong and ignored
strong Chinese objections to push through the "Three Against" political
reforms and thus was called by then Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office
Director Lu Ping as the "sinner who deserves to be condemned for a thousand
generations." The result was that the former Legislative Council could
not be continued past 1997.

Martin Lee has gone many times overseas to "bad-mouth Hong Kong" and
"bad-mouth China." He openly defended the American bombing of the
Chinese embassy in Serbia. He wrote an essay in The Wall Street
Journal to call for international pressure on China during the Beijing
Olympics. For these activities, he has been denounced as "Chinese
traitor Lee," "a traitor to his own county" and even "Wu Sangui" (note: the
Han general who surrendered to the Manchurians). Yesterday, he
continued to insist that he did not do anything wrong. One of his
considerations for retiring is to spend more time to promote the development
of democracy in Hong Kong from "a thousand miles away." He will be
working with Anson Chan, who also decided to retire from the Legislative
Council. He explained that this was "truth-mounthing China."

Martin Lee said that during his more than 20 years in politics, he was
happiest about the 1995 Legislative Council elections when he led the
Democratic Party to win 19 seats. The Democratic Party's number of
seats in Legco has been shrinking, and it has been said that they are an
ageing party unable to attract young people. Martin Lee acknowledged
that he has not been able to leave his political assets for the party.
He said that he has "failed" because he lacked political wisdom and often
made the wrong decisions and said the wrong things. He said that
British and American political parties are family operations, but his son
declined to join the party that the father started.

The Democratic Party has entered second-ladder members over 40 years old
in the upcoming Legislative Council elections. Martin Lee said that
the party cannot do this again next time, because it needs to find some
people who are 20 or 30 years old with more future and hope. But he
declined to say which pan-democratic newcomers are favored by him. He
said that he is not an independent like Anson Chan and he cannot lobby for
votes for non-Democratic Party candidates. He predicted that the worst
case situation in Hong Kong Island would be two Legco seats for Civic Party
and none of the Democratic Party.

[Note: The Martin Lee story got three articles in Oriental Daily. But
that does not make Oriental Daily a pro-establishment newspaper, because the
next four articles about against the Donald Tsang and the Hong Kong
government. So does that make Oriental Daily a pro-Beijing newspaper?
No, because the Chinese news articles included: the arrest of dissident Huang
Qi, the Yunnan mass incident/bloodshed, people getting sick from swimming in
the Pearl River, unenforceable regulations in Beijing, etc). So what is
Oriental Daily's position? It is actually very clear just what is left
after you eliminate the government and the politicians.]

Q: You have been surrounded by controversy over the years. How
do you view those controversies?A: All the "controversies" are weird. There has never ever been
any controversy about anything that I wrote or said. The
"controversies" have been about three things: (1) what I did and wrote
during the Cultural Revolution; (2) the "errors in historical studies" in
what I had written; (3) the culturati should not appear on television.

...

The issue is with the first point about my problem during the Cultural
Revolution. I had "written" during the Cultural Revolution ... but
there is little or no political content in what I wrote. Years ago, I
offered an reward in the form of my entire salary of the year to anyone who
can show a single sentence that I ever wrote is consistent with their
accusation. After 600 days, nobody has claimed the reward. That
was a thorough falsehood. This was libel as opposed to any
controversy.

These smears and attacks exposed a serious problem in Chinese culture
today: the forces of destruction are far more stronger than the forces of
construction. The destroyers always have the image of heroes, they
always rely on rumors, they never need to prove anything, they never have to
apologize and they never have to feel embarrassed. The increasingly
fewer constructors are always serving as 'targets.' Wang Xiaobo wrote:
In the Chinese culture field, there are two types of people: those who do
things and those who prevent others from doing things. The present
problem is that the number of people who prevent others from doing things is
at least ten times (or even several dozen times) as many as those who do
things. More shockingly, many media will take the side of those who
prevent others from doing things by advocating exposés and
criticisms against those who want to do things.

I am a typical case in this peculiar trend. Twenty
years ago, I quit my job. I am not a department head and I don't get
involved in any of the China Writers Association activities. I am not
a delegate or member of anything. I am a pure member of the culturati.
But I have been assaulted in several thousand essays that were published in
newspapers that have the public trust. Nothing in those criticisms
contain any trace of accuracy and nobody has ever apologized. The
absurdity of the situation is beyond description.

As for myself, I have completely ignored the absurd
attacks. I have too much to do and I don't have the time to get
distracted. The experience over the years have shown that we are
living in good times. No matter how forceful the attacks on me are, it
does not affect my progress and work. The mass of readers are firmly
on my side, and nothing that my detractors did has taken a foothold in the
cultural realm. I am confident enough to announce from my experience
that the age of personal grudges has gone past us already.

Therefore, there is no need to regard the "controversy"
of the attacks on me as an issue. These were the dark waves of
yesternight without any need to remember.

Q: How do you explain what you said after the 5.12
earthquake?A: The 5.12 earthquake showed the spirit of mutual help in the Chinese
people during natural disasters. This spirit did not get raised by
mobilization, education, guidance and enlightenment. Rather, it
spontaneously emerged all over China. This shows that it was a natural
emergence of human nature that belongs to "collective unconscious."
This is the most profound aspect of culture. I once defined culture
as: "Culture is the customary lifestyle and spiritual values." Under
this definition, the key term is "spiritual value" because a lifestyle
becomes customary as the result of choosing certain spiritual values over
generations.

The spiritual values of the Chinese culture had been
covered up for a long time. This nationwide disaster relief and
memorial realized the spiritual values of the Chinese culture. The
fact show that goodness exist not just in our familiar cultural language but
within the hearts of the masses. This goodness exists across gender,
age, occupation and place of origin. The world learned the Chinese
culture anew.

As for the various post-earthquake cultural phenomena, I
don't know which you are referring to. If this is about the constant
harping from the cultural commentators who live far away from the disaster
zone, then that is just as fleeting as the smoke and not worthy of
attention. Instead, we pay attention to whether the goodness and
kindheartedness can be reinforced, moulded, expanded and circulated to
become the soul of Chinese culture.

The soul of Chinese culture rests with the spiritual
values of Chinese culture. The 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake has revealed a
spiritual map that let us know where we are situated. This is an
important flight of steps for Chinese culture.

[022] "Vote Me In As
Village Cadre ... Or Else ..." (07/20/2008) (163.com)

"At 8pm on June 25, our family had finished eating dinner and we sat in
the courtyard to cool down. Suddenly, several vans and a dozen taxis
showed up with 70 to 80 men holding guns, machetes and poles. They
assaulted us and vandalized our home before leaving."

"Our family has no feud with Cai Xinlong but he sent a bunch of thugs to
assault the four members of our family!" Hengyan city Zhuhui district
Linghu town Shuangjiang village resident Cai Ronghua mumbled on his hospital
bed. "This was because we did not vote for Cai Xinlong as village
cadre. After the incident, the government pretended that they know
nothing and nobody cares about our injuries."

Cai Ronghua said that he knew two of the attackers who came from the same
village. One of them was nicknamed "Old Wintermelon" and hung around
Cai Xinlong; the other was a village bum nicknamed "Shortie." After
the incident, both "Old Wintermelon" and "Shortie" have gone into hiding.

According to another injured person Xie Xiaoying, they were assaulted
because they did not vote for Cai Xinlong in the village mayoral election.
She said: "Cai Xinlong sent people to beat us up not just for revenge, but
to establish an example for all those who did not vote for him. He is
setting up the condition for the people in the next election."

Cai Ronghua said that Cai Xinlong was unqualified to be village mayor,
and he offered three shortcomings:

1. When Cai Xinlong became the construction team leader of Shuanghu
village, he transferred the village land compensation fund to finance a
personal loan of 150,000 RMB over a three year period. Since 2004, the
government has given the team more than 7 million RMB in land compensation
but nobody has a clue about how that money was dispensed. Nothing
about village finances is known.

2. When females in the village brigade get married, their families should
receive land compensation money. But apart from Cai Xinlong's two
sisters and their two daughters receiving more than 100,000 RMB, nobody else
has received a cent.

3. Cai Xinlong built a six-storey house and filed the application after
the fact.

The reporter also interviewed Cai Xinlong, who sounded very much the
aggrieved party. According to him, a villager named Luo Weijiu got
drunk at a bar near the Engineering Institute and started ranting and
raving. He was beaten up by persons unknown. Afterwards, Luo's
son and Cai Ronghua's nephew filed a police complaint to say that "Shortie"
had beaten Luo up. The next day happened to be the wedding day for "Shortie"
but the police hauled him in for interrogation before concluding out that he
was not the perpetrator.

But "Shortie" was upset that the police ruined his wedding date. On
the afternoon of July 25, "Shortie" called Cai Ronghua's nephew to demand an
explanation as to why the police was called. A meeting was agreed upon
to discuss.

For his own protection, "Shortie" showed up with some friends at around
8pm that evening. For some reason, a fight broke out. Cai
Xinlong said: "On the next morning, I found 'Shortie.' He told me what
had happened. 'Shortie' is scared and he has gone into hiding."

But the injured persons rebutted this story: "When 'Old Watermelon' and 'Shortie'
assaulted us, they cursed us out for not voting for Cai Xinlong! If
this was a fight, then how come nobody else on the other side suffered a
nick? Why didn't the police arrest 'Shortie' that night? All
this shows that Cai Xinlong cannot avoid responsibility!"

Villager Zou Ying told the reporter: "We are asking for the leaders at
various levels to apprehend the attackers and the mastermind behind all this
in order to protect the legal rights of the voters. If this incident
is not handled properly, who would dare to come out and vote in the future?
If they don't vote for Cai Xinlong, they may get knifed too!"

[021] Black Is Black
(07/19/2008) This has been widely discussed among the expat community.
I thought this was stupid because I could not see any Beijing bar turning away
Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Shaquiile O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Tracy
McGrady and Tim Duncan without causing an international scandal. C',mon,
get real!

But it could all reduce down to a simple linguist confusion over the use of the
word 黑 ("black") in Chinese. Here
are the original materials:

(SCMP)
Authorities order bars not to serve black people. By Tom Miller.
July 18, 2008.

Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others
it considers social undesirables from entering the city's bars during the
Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, "One World,
One Dream". Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing
say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign
pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.
"Uniformed Public Security Bureau officers came into the bar recently and
told me not to serve black people or Mongolians," said the co-owner of a
western-style bar, who asked not to be named.

...

Security officials are targeting Sanlitun, which Olympic organisers
expect to be a key destination for foreign tourists looking for a party
during the Games. The pledges that Sanlitun bar owners had been
instructed to sign agreed to stop a variety of activities in their
establishments, including dancing and serving customers with black skin,
they said. They have been allowed to keep copies of all the pledges
except those relating to blacks, implying that the authorities are wary of
charges of racism. "I am appalled," said a black British national who
works in Beijing. "I understand that the government is trying to stop
certain illegal activities, but I don't think blanket discrimination is
going about it the right way. "Chinese people are prejudiced, but I
would have hoped that the government would set a better example as it debuts
on the world stage."

Calls to Dongcheng district and Chaoyang district public security
bureaus, which oversee the bar districts, went unanswered.

Police in Beijing's popular Sanlitun bar
district deny they are conducting a racist campaign ahead of the Olympics,
as another bar owner revealed he had been ordered not to let in blacks.
"They made us sign and chop a document saying we would not allow black
people in [during the Olympics]," the owner said. "But no one is willing to
say so because we'll all get deported ... and have our business shut."

Asked yesterday whether they had told landlords not to let blacks in
bars, an officer at the Sanlitun police station had a one-word answer: "No."

The bar owner said police had given landlords a list of dos and don'ts
during the Olympics. "We simply can't let them in [during the Olympics],
it's what I was told," he said. "It's [the restrictions on blacks]
definitely happening. It will all happen in 24 hours." His revelation
comes after the Post reported yesterday how another bar owner had
been verbally warned by Public Security Bureau officers not to serve
customers of Mongolian and African descent, while other bars had been
ordered to sign chopped pledges to keep to curfews, not allow the illegal
sale of drugs, and refuse certain customers.

"They [local police] call meetings, and everyone has to go, or else ...
If you don't go, they'll come back and shut you down," he said. Further
investigation found that not all bars in the newly revamped area known for
its nightlife had been ordered to refuse black customers, suggesting police
are targeting specific bars. "Black guys can come in and drink as long
as they have valid visas," another bar manager in Sanlitun said. "But we
have been told to watch out for black guys acting suspiciously, such as
constantly talking on their mobile phones. The aim is to crack down on drug
dealing."

(Beijing
Boyce) Um, really? Update on SCMP story II. July 19, 2008.
[Note: This is a blogger who should be commended for conducting fieldwork to
confirm the reported information]

I hit some Sanlitun
bars last night and made some
phone calls today, and this is
what I found:

- An owner said police met with Sanlitun bar
reps and told them to monitor
black patrons. He said the police told the reps that drug dealers are
predominantly black in the area. He said the police did not ask bar owners
to ban blacks.

- Several Sanlitun area bar owners said they
had not been told by police to ban blacks or Mongolians.

- I also spoke to several people in the
restaurant business and they told
me they have not heard of police telling city eateries to ban people.

- Most interesting, two people working at
one bar had different perspectives on the
terminology used by the police. One said the police used “black” in
reference to skin color; while the other said it was used in terms of bad
elements (the Chinese character for “black” is part of a phrase used to
describe criminals).

The last bit was the most interesting bit. In Chinese,
黑人 (heiren) refers to a person with dark skin.
This is a racial descriptor. In Chinese, 黑帮 (heibang) refers to a
criminal gang, and 黑帮份子 (heibangfenzi) refers to criminal gang elements
(for example, in the Weng'an incident, the authorities talks about 'criminal
gang elements' misleading the masses and starting a riot). So could this
be a case when the police asked the bar owners to look out for 黑帮份子 (heibangfenzi)
involved in drug sales, prostitution, extortion, pickpocketing, robbery, etc
but this came through (via translation?) to some people as 'black people'?

Addendum (from Wild Goose Journal): The confusion around "black
people" isn't necessarily due to translation, it exist even in Chinese: In
some parts of China (including Beijing), the word "black people" (黑人)
sometimes means
person or persons without valid residence registration (户口) - include
"over-quota" (超标) children who haven't received an official registration at
birth, and all kinds of adult "illegal migrants".

The Germany magazine Stern's website carried a article titled: "Gigant
China: Die kapitalistischen Kommunisten" which was accompanied by a
background map. In this map, it did not indicate Taiwan as a part of
China. Worse yet, Tibet was marked as part of China but it was given a
different color. Chinese netizens question whether the Stern
editors lack basic knowledge or else they are deliberately misinforming their
readers.

When the Global Times reporter contacted Stern, whose spokesperson
said that they have to go through a process of understanding what happened
before a reply can be provided. But even before the reply came, the
Stern website can changed the coloring of Tibet, although the boundary
line is still there.

[ESWN Comment: Chinese netizens did not praise Stern for other items
on the same page, such as the photos in
Das Land der Superlative and the test of knowledge about China in
Wie gut kennen Sie China?. You should check them out instead of
worrying about the hurt feelings of the Chinese people.]

[019] The Independent
Chinese PEN Center website (07/18/2008) This is what I found when
I clicked on Independent Chinese PEN
Center (note: I am doing this from Hong Kong, I am using Firefox 3.0.1,
I run Norton Anti-Virus software and I do not recall signing up with any Google
service with respect to malware advisory).

Clicking on "Why was this site blocked?" led to this explanation:

Clicking on 'Ignore this warning' brings to the actual home page of the
Independent Chinese PEN Center. But do I dare to click on any of the
articles?

[018] Taiwan By The
Numbers (07/18/2008) (UDN)
(830 adults were interviewed by telephone on July 17, 2008. Telephone
numbers were randomly selected from the telephone directories and then the last
two digits are randomized. 355 persons refused to participate in the
poll).

Red: Satisfied with the job performance of
President Ma Ying-jeouGreen: Dissatisfied with the job
performance of President Ma Ying-jeou

[017] Taiwan By The
Numbers (07/18/2008) (TVBS)
(1,092 persons age 20 or over interviewed by telephone on July 15-16, 2008.
Telephone numbers were randomly selected from the telephone directory and then
the last four digits were randomized.)

In Wudian Middle School, Changfeng county, Anhui province, two students
fought in a classroom but the teacher did nothing to stop them.
Afterwards, one student lapsed into unconsciousness and then died.
This incident was exposed in the media and drew a great deal of attention.
The teacher Yang Jinggui was labeled by netizens as "Do Nothing Yang" and
became just as hot on the Internet as the teacher nicknamed Runner Fan. Yang has been
transferred away from the school and also agreed to pay 100,000 RMB in
compensation to the family of the deceased. He also received a major
demerit. The Wudian Middle School principal Fang Qifu was also
relieved of his post and given a major demerit.

The following is the first media interview of Yang Jinggui, as conducted
by Henan Commercial News.

Q. Did you hear the two students fighting with each other?A. I was writing the key points of the textbook on the blackboard.
I had my back turned and I did not hear anything unusual. When I
finished, I turned around and I saw the two wrestling and jostling with each
other. Chen Kong had his shoulder up against Yang Tao's neck, while
Yang Tao was fending off Chen's shoulder.

Q. Did you try to stop them?A. I stopped them. It is not true that I did nothing as the media
said. I was very angry at the time because these two were very
unbecoming. I said angrily: "If you want, you can continue this on the
sports field after class." By that time, two other students had pulled
the two apart.

Q. When you saw Yang Tao foaming in the mouth and passing out, what
did you do?A. I did not see how they fought and I didn't know how much force was
used. I did not think too much of it. I instructed three
students to take Yang Tao to the health clinic. At the same time, I
instructed students to inform the class director and the school principal.
The class director and the school principal came over. I thought that
I had performed my duty.

Q. Was it appropriate to only say "If you want, you can continue this
on the sports field after class" when you see two students fighting?A. I know now that this is inappropriate. I spoke out of anger.
I was condemning them for ignoring the presence of the teacher. I
never imagined that there would be such an outcome.

Q. Since Yang Tao died, you have not accepted any media interview.
Why?A. It is not that I don't want to tell you what I think. But I
feel sorry about Yang Tao and I don't want to hurt his family any more.
My silence may lessen the hurt of his parents.

Q. What does Yang Tao's family think about you?A. Yang Tao's family has been to my home to tell me that they will "make
sure that I die." To avoid any conflict, I have gone into hiding.
The parents of Yang Tao might feel that I could have stopped the tragedy
from occurring, but that was not how it was. The police believed that
there were underlying reasons for the death. The school was too far
away from the hospital, so that Yang Tao could not be treated immediately.

Q. After the media reports came out, some people have labeled you as
"Do Nothing Yang" and ranked you as the same level as "Runner Fan."
What do you think?A. This is an insult to me. This is extremely irresponsible.
I actually interceded, so how can you say that I did nothing? Since I
refused to be interviewed, they get to say everything. I find this
unacceptable. This is trampling on my character and dignity. It
hurts.

Q. You reported the matter to the class director and the school
principal, but the school told the media that "you did not report a fight
between students and you were negligent in your duties." Why are you
being held accountable? Did someone work on you to do so?A. Nobody worked on me. I thought that I had to do whatever it
takes for the parents. I cannot rebut the charges, but public opinion
is forcing me to tell the truth.

Q. Have you paid the 100,000 RMB compensation to Yang Tao's family?
Based upon your annual income, how many years will it take to repay the debt
that you have to incur?A. I have give the money to the family already. I did not have the
cash on hand. But the more than 30 teachers at the school are lending
me 1,000+ RMB apiece. Based upon my 2,800+ RMB monthly income (minus
normal expenses), it will take four to five years to repay the debt.

Q. According to media reports, there had been a case at your school in
which a student used a knife to cut off the fingers of a teacher?A. Yes. About six months ago, a student named Liu used a chopper
to cut off four fingers of his class director. This student was
frequently late for class and the class director summoned the parents for an
explanation. On the next day, the student appeared with a machete.
If the teacher had not used his hand to fend off the blow, his head would
have been chopped off. The student was only 15 years old, and
therefore not responsible under the law. The class director incurred
more than 30,000 RMB in medical expenses, but the student only paid more
than 3,000 RMB in compensation.

Q. Did that incident affect you?A. Definitely. Not just for me, but for all the teachers at the
school. Should we do anything about the students? How far must
we go? Many teachers do not have any standards or guidelines.

Q. When did you find out that you were coming here to Weng'an?Xie Xiaodong: At 11pm on July 3, the provincial party organizational
department wanted me to go in for a talk. I speculated that I might be
going to Weng'an. At the time, I could feel that. I spoke to the
head of the provincial party organizational department, so I cannot
hesitate. He was speaking to me across party hierarchical levels.
He was evaluating whether I am fit for the job. He posed many
questions. I had served a long time at the grassroots level. I
had been town deputy mayor, town mayor and town party secretary. I had
been the executive vice-mayor at Chishui city. I was also one of four
cadres selected as test cases in 2006, when the local cadres and provincial
department cadres swapped jobs in a one-for-one exchange. I have
handled quite a few mass incidents. Previously, I had handled the case
of an illegal building complex. Premiers Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao
both wrote directives on that case. I took less than 3 years to
resolve the case. About 1,400 persons were involved in that case, and
the six 9-story buildings were eventually demolished. There were no
mass petitions. On July 3, I had my interview. On July 4, I came
to Weng'an. I met the new Weng'an county party secretary Long
Changchun for the first time at 3pm on July 4. We did not know each
other before that. At 3pm, we met at the office of Provincial Party
Secretary Shi Zongyuan.

Q. Did Party Secretary Shi Zongyuan make any demands?Xie: His position was that Weng'an must be stablized and not create more
problems for the provincial party and government. He specifically told
us to consider our family issues: We can decide whether we want to go to
Guiyang, Weng'an or the provincial level. At the time, my wife was
waiting for me outside. I came out and told her that I had to go
immediately. We said goodbye. I did not take anything with me.
I just left. On the way, my phone and Long Changchun's phone kept
ringing non-stop.

Q. Is there pressure to become mayor at this time?Xie: First of all, there is the public opinion. CCTV ran the news
crawler that I was the new Weng'an county mayor and Guizhou TV ran a full
broadcast. On the first day on the job, there were at least 300
telephone calls for me. I just ignored anything that did not come from
Weng'an. I spent 90 minutes replying to SMS. Some of those who
called me were friends and relatives who were concerned about me going to
this hardship place. Some were giving me their best wishes, others
were asking for information, all sorts of calls. From Beijing, from
Shanghai, from everywhere. There is pressure on me when I get this
kind of attention.
The second kind of pressure is that the social conflicts have been
fermenting in Weng'an for a long time. No matter how you put it, there
is a limit as to how much I can do. Everybody expects me to accomplish
this within six months and that within one year. Frankly speaking, if
the cadres are still my original team, I will learn quickly.

Q. The world is worried about the stability of Weng'an. What
have you been doing over the past several days?Xie: When the two of us got here, the first thing that we did was to
carry out the demands from the provincial party committee. We asked the cadres
to visit every home to tell the people about the truth of the 6.28 incident and
explain how the provincial party and government are handling the case.
The propaganda work has been completed. Basically, it is 100% done.
At some places, we did two to three times more than the required work.

Q. Repeated propagandizing?Xie: Repeated propagandizing. Some people have heard it two to
three times alerady. They said, "You don't know have to tell us
because we know the truth already." (Laughs) We are also rapidly
going through re-organization. We are asking the cadres to tell
what they did during the period around the 6.28 incident. We ask
people to discuss and assess. In the future, whenever there is a
mass incident of more than 100 people, the town secretary and mayor will be
held accountable (basically, it means that they lose their jobs). The
relevant departments related to the mass incident will also be held
accountable (basically, it means that the department heads lose their jobs).
There will also be accountability as to why the hidden danger had not been
detected and reported to the county government beforehand.
For the 6.28 incident, it was largely an issue of the cadres not talking
properly to the people. Although I cannot promise people that I can
solve all their problems, we can at least speak nicely and make sure that
people don't get too emotional ...

Q. Do you feel that some of the Weng'an local party and government
officials that you have met over the past several days are scared?Xie: The people who are anxious and afraid are all the people who have
problems. They are a minority. There are more of them at the
public security bureau. It is for certain that there are some bad
elements within the public security bureau. I will give the media a
satisfactory answer in one month's time. We are now investigating very
hard.

...

[014] CCTV versus WoW (07/17/2008)
(Tianya)
Recently, CCTV showed a series of programs titled <Battling Internet Demons>
that targeted the online game <World of Warcraft> for its addictiveness and the
required treatments by experts.

<Battling Internet Demons>

This game is really scary

There is only endless slaughters

You go there to kill, you fight and you kill.

Inside this Internet world, you kill people there

The online game developers are like producing opium

Walk out of the World of Warcraft and recover your human decency

This program was criticized by many online gamers as being biased,
inaccurate and partial. At Baidu's CCTV forum and other game forums, the
online gamers flooded protest posts (see below for a screen capture).

[012] Am I A 50 Cent Gang Member?
(07/16/2008) This comment is made out of sheer laziness to do long
translations after a tiring trip to the USA last week. So this is a
departure from norm, but perhaps more stimulating (and also ill-considered).

The initial question is: Is the ESWN blogger a 50 cent gang member?
Well, why would you take my YES or NO answer as truth? Tautologically,
this is unprovable (that is to say, a 50 cent gang member will deny being such
in order to remain effective and that kind of response is indistinguishable
from those people who are genuinely not).

But let me make the argument purely from the economic angle. First,
it is public information that my official job title is the Chief Technical
Officer of the second largest media research organization in the world.
As such, I am earning a certain wage, which is neither exceptionally low nor
high.

If you offer me 50 cents per blog post, would I be doing what I am doing?
NO. YOU MUST BE F*CKING JOKING!

If you offer me 5 RMB per blog post, would I be doing what I am doing?
NO. YOU MUST BE F*CKING JOKING!

If you offer me 50 RMB per blog post, would I be doing what I am doing?
NO. YOU MUST BE F*CKING JOKING!

If you offer me 500 RMB per blog post, would I be doing what I am doing?
NO. YOU MUST BE F*CKING JOKING! I run 3 posts per day on the
average, and therefore you are paying me 1,500 RMB per day (or 45,000 RMB
per month). With due respect, my regular day job pays much more than that.
This is just not worth the hassle.

If you offer me 5,000 RMB per blog post, would I be doing what I am doing?
Well, you are the one who needs your F*CKING HEAD examined. I run 3
posts per day on the average, and therefore you are paying me 15,000 RMB per
day (or 450,000 RMB per month). This may be in the same order of
magnitude as my day
wages, but there is no way that what I do here is worth that much money.
Your supervisor would have a SH*T FIT if he finds out that is how you are
squandering money on me. You cannot squeeze more productivity out of
me, because my effectiveness would decline in direct proportion to the
display of partisanship. Most people who hurl insults at me do not
understand this simple piece of economics.

In conclusion, it makes no economic sense to employ me as a '50 cent gang
member' (even if the wages are set at 'market levels').

The more interesting question is: Does the 50 Cent gang actually exist in
China?

Of course, they exist. As noted in the post by Rebecca MacKinnon,
they exist in China as well as elsewhere in the world (including the
'democratic' countries which enjoy 'freedom of speech' and 'freedom of
press'). In the Internet age, any government ('democratic' or otherwise) would do the same thing
with their resources.
But I believe that their effectiveness in China won't be felt in another two
years or so. Why? Because they still have no idea how to harness
the power of 280,000 Internet commentators at this time in China. I see
no need to have 280,000 Internet commentators to 'guide' public opinion.
'Big' in not necessarily 'better.' The main job can be done more
effectively by
just a few hundred purposeful Internet commentators.

What is there to be worked on for the next two years? For each
'regrettable incident' (such as
The Weng'an Mass
Incident, Why Did the Building Collapse?, The Olympic Torch Tour As Public Relations
Disaster, etc), they obviously need to get the positive spin story
out.
The 50-cent gang is likely only to be able to support an official story as
opposed to providing the original information on their own. I don't
think that the group of directionless 50 Cent Gang people are doing a
particularly good job right now. This is not just about repeating the
official story, but making a coherent and even enhanced argument. They
need a lot more training and practice, and you cannot do so with a bunch of
loose sub-contractors.

But there is also the
task of neutralizing the negative stories offered by 'hostile forces' and
'bored rumor mongers looking for excitement.' The solution is to outdo
them by providing multiple fabrications that cast doubt on everything.
For example, in the matter of the Weng'an incident, a 50-cent gang member
could write an erotic story about the rape-torture of the victim (e.g. she was
drugged, she was gang-raped, her nipples were cut out with a knife, a
flashlight was rammed up her vagina ... oh wait, they don't even have to work
very hard because they can just copy-and-paste from The
Case of Gao Yingying). If there are hundreds of well-scripted sicko
stories out there, you can only dismiss all of them as crap and you will have
to wait for an authoritative version. This condition can be achieved more readily by a small
focused force than by 280,000 directionless 50 Cent gang members. The
way to negate negative stories is not filter them by the GFW (Great FireWall)
but to offer so many versions that one has to conclude that nothing is
credible. This is a simple tenet of information theory which has not yet
gotten through. In another two years, they will get it.

In
The Weng'an Mass
Incident, there were multiple stories that turned out to be
false eventually (or, at the very least, they could not be all true at the
same time). How simple is it to discredit all of them by enumerate them
side by side? I haven't seen anyone doing that. If that were done,
a truthseeker would be totally confounded. I know that I was -- all I
had was doubts, but I had no idea what the truth was. In other words, I
was disarmed. That was not because of any work by the 50 cent gang, but
because the oppositionists themselves screwed up with their incoherent
versions.

What are the long-term prospects (that is, two year or more into the
future)? The Chinese government's '50 cent gang' (possibly under
re-organization) will prevail over an oppositionist side in disarray and
disunity. When the oppositionists come up with multiple conflicting
stories, it can only damage themselves and help the Chinese government.

[011] Kung Fu Panda's
Message Is: "Thou Shalt Not Pander" (07/16/2008) At The China
Blog (TIME), Simon Elegant wrote: "Well, I finally saw Kung Fu Panda
last night. Pretty good and quite funny, though with all the hype it couldn't
help but be a bit of a letdown. I did wonder what they spent the 130 million
dollars on. All those stars' voices might have something to do with it I
suppose. But it also left me a little puzzled about some of the agonizing that
has been going on in China about the film. It's amusing and has some fairly
standard gongfu mythology woven in. But there are no resounding insights into
Chinese history or the national character or whatever. If it didn't get made in
China it's not because Chinese couldn't but because it would have seemed too
obvious, probably."

I have been back in Hong Kong for a couple days and I am still not in the
mood to do long translation posts. Besides, this looks like a very slow
news week anyway. So I'll talk about some current topics from my
personal perspective.

First, I'll talk about Kung Fu Panda's relevance to this blog.
Strange, isn't it? But this unexceptional story does tell something that
is not necessarily what they teach at school.

Ever since I began this website, I have been repeatedly given advice about
how to turn this into a 'real' blog. Here are some examples:

This is the Web 2.0 era and a proper blog needs to have interactive
features such as comments, trackbacks, tags, etc. You are still stuck
in the Web 0.1 Beta era.

I refuse to come to your website because you don't allow comments.
It is unacceptable for you to have your say (and your voice is louder than
most) and not to allow people to respond.

You don't allow comments and all you have to say is to tell me to go and
start my own blog!? F*ck you and the horse that you came in on!

Your website is too text-heavy -- it will turn readers away like droves.
You need to make sure that every post is liberally sprinkled with graphics.

I can offer Search Engine Optimization for your blog in order to improve
your traffic statistics.

You have an influential blog and therefore you must be fair and balanced
by presenting both sides of every story.

You are clearly biased so I have to admire you for being able to deceive
some people that you are not (note: this is sub-divided into accusations of
being "CIA special agent," "Li Kar-shing's paid agent," "pan-blue blogger
who hates freedom, liberty and democracy," "pro-Taiwan, China-hating blogger
who only publishes negative information on China," "Hong Kong DAB shill," "amoralist,"
"anarchist," etc).

You shouldn't be linking to the E*** W*** blog because the message and
tone are hate material.

...

But I ignore all that and go my own way. If I had listened to these
advice, I should be following the traditional, mainstream path. [The
Panda would have tried to learned Kung Fu from his teacher (Shifu) in the
classical fashion and become like the five disciples (The Tigress, The Monkey,
The Viper, The Crane and The Mantis).] As such, I would be living
according to someone else's rules, and my job accomplishments and satisfaction
level would be prescribed. [The Panda would never be able to surpass The
Leopard.] However, I choose to do things my way. I will not use
any traditional yardstick to measure my success or lack thereof. You can
argue whether I could have done even better by taking those advice. I
can only say with certainty that I have no regrets at the end of the day.
[The Panda reads the Dragon Scroll, sees no written instructions and then
learns indirectly from his father that it is all about self-confidence and
self-reassurance.] At the end of the day, I am satisfied. If good
things come out of this, so much the better; if good things don't occur, so be
it.

This discussion can easily be extended to my view of modern China.
Shall China pursue its modernization in accordance to western prescription (as
the World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund, US Department of
Treasury, Jeffrey Sachs, European Union, Nicholas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel,
United Nations Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, Reporters
Without Borders, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Rand Corporation,
Tibetan Youth Congress, Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, Wang Dan, Grace Wang
Qianyuan, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Apple Daily, Boxun, Epoch
Times and you can add your own preferences here)? Or shall it try to
look for its own path? I think that it is clear that China is pursuing
its own path, and you can debate whether that is right or wrong (either
overall or by parts). Once that is accepted, then there is no need for
the kind of nationalistic defensiveness over China's actions that is sometimes
evident. When you have to counterattack your critics, it only shows that
you are insecure. When you are self-confident and self-reassured, you
don't have to pander to anyone.

Of course, self-confidence and self-reassurance does not mean that you can
dismiss all the problems that will inevitably arise in a rapidly changing
society (such as the 'mass incidents'). Rather, you are self-confident
and self-reassured because you know that those problems can and shall be
handled in your own way.

Will my comments here upset people? They probably will. But I
don't care. And that is the whole point here, isn't it?

Five former ministers who served under Chen Shui-bian when he was
president of Taiwan were indicted Tuesday on corruption charges related to
the alleged misuse of special expense accounts.

The Taiwan Supreme Prosecutor's Office said in a statement that former
justice minister Shih Mao-lin, former education minister Tu Cheng-sheng,
former interior minister Lee Yi-yang, former examination minister Lin
Chia-cheng and former civil service minister Chu Wu-hsien were among nine
people indicted Tuesday. The sums each of the five former ministers were
alleged to have embezzled by using false receipts to claim expenses ranged
from about $12,000 to $200,000, according to the state-run Central News
Agency.

Tu Cheng-sheng is charged with misusing NT$361355 in special fees during
the eight years of the Chen Shui-bian presidency.

In 2000, Tu Cheng-sheng was the Director of the National Palace Museum
and he was submitting the personal receipts of himself and his wife as
special fees expense. His secretary was aware of what was happening
but continued to process improper receipts between May 2001 and December
2003.

The investigators went through the expenses with a fine toothcomb.
Among the items that were considered 'faulty' were:

- One NT$6,600 receipt was recorded as a gift for Gail M. Harrit.
During the interrogation, Tu's secretary admitted that Tu Cheng-sheng spent
the money to buy a size 39 white shirt from a department store because he
had to meet with foreign guests.

- One NT$7,400 receipt was recorded as a gift for Professor Chu Yun-han,
who denied ever receiving such a gift. During interrogation, Tu
admitted that it was for personal use.

- One NT$34,360 receipt was recorded as a gift for Academician C.Y. Hsu,
who declined comment. During interrogation admitted this and another
receipt for NT$51,500 were for personal use.

- One NT$3,500 receipt for women's clothes was recorded as a gift for
Yunlin Science and Technology University chancellor Chou Hung-chang.
But there is no such chancellor by that name at that university.
Another receipt for men's clothes was recorded as a gift for Misho Museum
director Hiroko Koyama, who is a woman.

- One receipt was recorded as a gift of dental appliance to the writer
Bai Yang, whose wife replied by telephone that no such gift has ever been
receivfed.

- The prosecutor interviewed C.Y. Hsu, Chu Yun-han, David Barton and
other recipients inside Taiwan and they denied receiving gifts from Tu.
The prosecutor emailed the Sweden Far East Museum director and the Wisconsin
Museum director, and they also denied receiving gifts from Tu.
Academcians C.Y. Hsu and Tao Jing-shen had been listed as receiving Curruti
1881 accessories valued at more than NT$34,000, while Chu Yun-hand was
listed as receiving accessories valued at more than NT$7,000. Tu
Cheng-sheng admitted that the gifts were never sent.

- Tu Cheng-sheng's son Tu Ming-yi purchased a bottle of champagne to give
to EMI chairman Chen Tse-shan, but the receipt was listed as a gift to
Professor Chi Pang-yuan. Tu Cheng-sheng blamed his aide for "making a
mistake."

- A friend of Tu Cheng-sheng defended him over the NT$61,992 for
purchasing personal clothing. He said that Tu was known to be sloppily
dressed as Education Minister and therefore the money was spent to purchase
a decent-looking suit. This was therefore a business-related expense.

25 pan-democratic legislative councilor signed a joint statement
yesterday to protest the election guidelines published by the Election
Affairs Commission for not including regulations on exit polls being
conducted by organizations of uncertain backgrounds. They claimed that
these polls are electioneering tools for the rich and powerful political
parties and seriously damage the fairness of elections.

Legislative councilor Anson Chan said that she was very disappointed with
the decision of the Election Affairs Commission. "Both the Election
Affairs Commission and the government know very well that certain people are
using the exit polls to affect the election outcomes so that we cannot have
a fair, just and open election." She pointed out that citizens have
the right to refuse to participate in these exit polls if the Election
Affairs Commission fails to improve its guidelines.

Democratic Party's Lee Wing-tat said that the current guidelines of the
Election Affairs Commission is abetting and encouraging certain political
parties to conduct exit polls contrary to the principle of fairness.
He pointed out that the cost of organizing exit polls is enormous, but not a
single cent of that is included in the election campaign expenses.
This has led to an extremely unfair election system.

Civic Party's leader Audrey Eu said that some political parties are using
the exit polls to influence the election outcomes and this has made the
elections more and more unfair. "I find the government decision to be
extremely, extremely, extremely regrettable (我 對 政 府 咁 做 係 極 度 、 極 度 、 極 度 遺
憾). We must protest sternly." Civic Party's Ronny Tong said that
not only does the Election Affairs Commission not regulate exit polls, but
its guidelines imply that there is no problem with leaking exit poll results
to election campaigners. He believes that if the authorities refuses
to revise the guidelines, then the voters have no choice but to decline
participation in these election polls.

Zhang Dingchao stood on the podium and spoke with a slightly quivering
voice. He was facing a panel of seriously looking judges whom he needs
to convince with a speech about his policy platform in a few minutes.
He was aiming to become the party secretary of Xifeng county, Guiyang city,
Guizhou province.

Currently, Zhang Dingchao is a deputy party secretary of Xifeng county as
well as the dean of the county party school.

Nineteen other people are in the same situation. They have emerged
as victors from 81 competitors and now they are in the finals of the Guiyang
city election of party secretaries in four counties. The nomination of
these candidates had been through public recommendation, and that was why
this has become a matter of national attention that is covered live by CCTV.

Zhang Dingchao said: "We must stay alert and not allow individual cadres
to become 'the herd that hurts the horse'." As soon as he said that,
there was a good-willed chuckle from the audience. Zhang Dingchao
paused, chuckled and said: "That should have been 'the horse that hurts the
herd'." After a pause, he continued to speak off the cuff. For
Zhang, the speech was actually critical. During the recommendation
phase of the selection, he received 66 votes whereas the top of his five
competitors had 221 recommendations. He was behind already.
According to Zhang, this was an opportunity to learn.

The election then went into the Q&A phase. The Master of Ceremony
repeatedly asked the candidates: "There was a mass incident in Weng'an
county in which the masses attacked the government buildings. Please
tell us the revelations and lessons of this incident" and "a small number of
cadres are either doing nothing or abuseing their authority and that is the
key to holding back local economic and social development -- how would you
solve that problem if you should be elected the county party secretary?"

When Zhang Dingchao's turn came up, he said: "In handling such problems,
we must have an open communication channel and resolve the reasonable
demands of the masses in a timely manner ... the water can carry the ship,
but it can also capsize it." He was greeted by a warm applause.

Guiyang city party secretary Li Jun said that there was a mass incident
on the afternoon of June 28th during which there was vandalism, looting and
arson at the Weng'an county party, government and public security bureau
buildings. The situation was serious and awful, and seldom seen in the
history of New China. This should ring a warning bell for all the
cadres of Guiyang city. "Right now, the people are dissatisfied with
two political things. First, a small number of cadres are corrupt;
second, the wrong people are being selected." Li Ju said: "We want to
use open nominations and elections to prevent those people who are
shameless, corrupt and abusive from attaining leadership positions."

[007] The Kaiping
School Girl Rape/Torture Video (07/15/2008) (163.com)
This story has now
gone international. The following is a Japanese blog post that is being
circulated around China. How do Japanese comments compare with Chinese
comments? "When a forest is big, there are all kinds of birds."

1. I was unable to finish watching it.
2. I was so stunned that I have nothing left to say
3. Such a country ...
4. Why did I think of the murder by burial under concrete story? I was
assaulted before and it was dreadful. I could not finish watching it.
I couldn't take it.
5. I was vexed as I watched it.
6. This was the first time that I saw a video that I regret watching it.
This is unbelievable.
7. For the sake of the victim, please delete this video from the world.
It hurts to be stripped naked, raped and filmed.
8. Demons wearing human skins.
9. If I were the father of this girl, I would go and kill all the trash.
10. This can happen in any county in the world. This is a terrible
thing for the girl and her family for this video to be seen by the whole
world. If I were the girl in the video, I would feel like an object of
contempt. This is less about forgetting the past than looking for a
better future.
11. I don't know what happened ...
12. This is repetition of a Japanese incident 12 years ago. You cannot
get eliminate of the video.
13. Stop it, this is so cruel and heartbreaking. I hope the people who
can calmly carry out this sort of thing will disappear from the world.
14. This is a minor bump in a peace society. We ought to be jealous.
Look at Japan -- gang rapes, private tortures, kidnappings, accidents occur
around us frequently ...
15. The face of the girl on the video should have been masked ... in Japan,
similar but not identical stories happen every day (especially in Tokyo).
Will her parents beat her for this?
16. The abused and beaten girl did not seem to resist. Did she give up
fighting back? The immobility of the girl showed how terrible her
tormentors are.
17. The chaos was good. I'm getting an erection.
18. It is better to consider this from the viewpoint of the victim.
It is not right if we are unsympathetic when we see the look of a little
lamb begging for mercy.

[006] China White
(07/15/2008) One of the worst movies made in 1988 has suddenly become a
very hot item on the Internet. The movie is China White (轰天龙虎会) and the IMDB
description is: "In Amsterdam - in the time before the legalisation of some
drugs and the following growth of competition on the market - takes place a war
between the Italian and Chinese mafia because of the control of the heroin
market." The cast consists of Russell Wong, Steven Vincent Leigh, Lisa
Schrage, Billy Drago, Kao-kui Ho, Victor Hon, Kwong Leung Wong, Feng Ku, Ricky
Ho, Frank Sheppard, Cahit Olmez, Rodney Beddal, Fritz Kampinga, Saskia Van
Rijswijk, Lex de Regt, ... with the following listed in the 'rest of the cast'
for the Hong Kong version only: Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Alex Man and Fui-On Shing.

Why the sudden interest in this crappy movie? It all started again with
this interview.

More than a decade ago, actress Carina Lau was kidnapped and the
kidnappers took some photos of her. She recalled: "It was more than
ten years ago. The crime bosses liked to invest in movie production
and one of them wanted me to make a movie for them. I refused, and
they punished me this way. How was it settled? I made a movie
for them without payment." She disclosed that the movie was made in
Holland.

On the day of her kidnapping, she visited a friend and was kidnapped on
her way home. She does not blame her four kidnappers: "They did not
violate me. They were just following orders. I am grateful to
them."

More than a decade late, EastWeek magazine acquired the photos and
published them as a front page story. The entire entertainment world
came out to protest and EastWeek was forced to fold (note: the current
EastWeek magazine is published by someone else). Carina Lau said: "I
always had an inferiority complex because I felt that people regarded me as
a 'mainland girl.' When those photos came out a decade later, the
entertainment world as well as all the Hong Kong people came out to support
me. I did not expect that. I have to thank everybody. I
was really very touched."

Netizens believe that the movie was China White. The
information on the movie itself is very sparse, so it is still not known just
who the backer is. The human flesh search engines will eventually flush
the person out (and it may be the wrong person). Why is Carina Lau
virtually fingering the person now?

Postscript: Here are the answers as provided by a commentator:
Q1. Who is the financial backer of this movie? (see link for a
not-well-known person)
Q2. Why is Carina Lau fingering this person now? (see link
for the death by gunshot of this person)

During the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, the son of He Dezhi and Cheng
Xingfeng was buried in the rubble of Beichuan MIddle School. The body
of He Chuan has not been recovered. It had been the dream of He Chuan
to attend university in Beijing.

On the day after the earthquake (May 13), Premier Wen Jiabao visited
Mianyang and spoke to four children, including the sister of He Chuan at the
Jiuzhou Sports Auditorium. Wen told them: "The government will look
after you, the government will look after your lives, the government will
look after your studies. You should think that you are still living in
your own homes. Don't cry! Don't cry! This was a disaster
and you are lucky to survive. Therefore, you must live well."

In late June, He Dezhi, Chengxingfeng and their daughter He Xiaomei came
to Beijing and opened a small restaurant (about 10 square meters in area)
named "Beichuan Chengfeng Restaurant." The parents were not
well-educated and so they
chose a name that was a combination of their hometown and the first and
third characters in the name
of the female owner. The name Chengfeng can also be taken to mean that
Beichuan is rising from the ashes like a phoenix.

On July 12, exactly two months after the Wenchuan earthquake, the He
family woke up to find that someone had spray-painted the words "Sichuan
persons, scram back to the disaster zone!" on the gate of their restaurant.
Less than two months ago, the Chinese people were all swearing: "We are all Sichuan
people."

Who did that? Why they did do it? Nobody knows at this time.

But here is part of the Internet controversy which may have caused this
piece of incivility. At first, netizens praised the restaurant: "the
Beichuan Chengfeng Restaurant is the flag that showed that the people of
Beichuan shall never concede to the natural disaaster" and "the Beichuan
Chengfeng Restaurant is the finest example of people helping themselves to
get their lives back together." Many netizens organized volunteers and
QQ groups to help the Beichuan Chengfeng Restaurant.

Then one day someone walked into the restaurant and asked whether the
owners were from Beichuan. They said yes. The person put down 50
RMB and walked out without dining. The owners felt really bad because
they were not looking for alms. Thereafter, when asked where she
came from, the female owner said that she was from Chongqing in order to
avoid a recurrence of the stiatuion. This
caused some other netizens to denounce this couple from Chongqing for
impersonating Beichuan earthquake survivors to deceive the Beijing public.
That became a huge Internet scandal.

Finally, a traditional media reporter conducted an in-depth investigation
and verified that the owners were indeed from Beichuan. The interview showed
that the two were strong and proud Beichuan people; they are grateful, but
they are self-reliant and self-respecting. They did not to sit in the
disaster zone to wait for state relief. They wanted to earn their own
living and not wallow in the pity and alms from others.

But on the morning of July 12, the family read the spray-painted words:
"Sichuan people, scram back to the disaster zone!" One explanation was
that this was someone who read the part about the Chongqinq imposters but
not the media follow-up. Another explanation is that "when the forest
is large, there are all kinds of birds, including some very nasty ones."

Some people seemed terrified of hearing the words "universal
values," as if these words represented western forces. Actually,
if they are universal, then they are applicable to the human race regardless
of whether they come from the west or east. And they can even come
from China.

Recently, the movie <Kung Fu Panda> has been received well around
the world. People of different races, beliefs and cultural backgrounds
like the movie because the kind of values in the movie are applicable to
everyone in the world.

It is an eternal theme that good triumps over evil. That is
something that everybody accepts. That is how the malevolent and
selfish Leopard ultimately lost to the Panda. Respecting one's teacher
may be a bit removed for the westerners who stress individuality, more so
than easterners. But from the handling of the respect of the Cat
Teacher towards the Turtle Master, it can be seen that the western
scriptwripters were maintaining a respect for character. There is not
much difference between east and west with respect to the sense of
responsibililty, although there may be a difference with respect to the
target of responsibilty (the human race? society? nation?
government?). No matter what, the sense of responsibilty and mission
is an accepted value. It is out of this quality that the Cat Teacher
decided to confront the Leopard on behalf of the villagers; for the same
reason, the Panda dared to confront the Leopard. Another value is that
individuals should be given adequate space to develop and control their own
characters. Perhaps some people feel that this concept is more
western, but when we see the Panda finally achieving his dream to become a
Kung Fu Maser, we as easterners must also agree with letting an individual
realize and surpass himself through his own efforts in a relaxed
environment. There is also love, between friends and between
people. Love is an eternal theme. It is also an eternal theme
for humankind, although its realization may be different depending on the
differences by culture, religion, race and so on.

These values can be applied to China's panda, just as it could be applied
to Mickey Mouse which symbolizes American culture. That is why the
values in the movie are actually what we call universal values.

But we must admit that whenever we speak of universal values, we often
feel that they are very western. That is because these values were
nurtured from western culture and that is why they are familiar. Due
to problems of state power and influence, the values nurtured by eastern
cultures (and especially Chinese valus) are not known or accepted by the
west.

When I watched <Kung Fu Panda>, I was most impressed when the five
knights respectfully addressed the Panda as "Master." This
expressed their acceptance and respect for the Panda that they once
despised. The Hollywood stars who provided their voices for dubbing
probably know little about Chinese Kung Fu and its spirit before making this
movie. But this final call of "Master" required a deep
understanding of this respect. Actually, the movie company did provide
a great deal of information as well as personal experience of Kung Fu for
the purpose of dubbing. Without this acceptance and familiarity, it
would be difficult to come up with a movie like this one.

For the audience, they don't require four or five years of preparation
and learning. Through this movie that conveys the spiritual essense of
Kung Fu, many people will have a sense of identification, and even
participation. This reminds me of how Indian Yoga became popular in
the west. In Hong Kong, people are enthusiastic about yoga for the
purpose of weight reduction. In the west, people were intrigued by the
sense of mystery in this eastern practice as well as the expectation for the
purification of the soul. This enthusiasm created a certain image for
India, just as Chinese Kung Fu and Pandas have created a certain image for
China and exported Chinese values.

If and when we feel that we are not being understood by the west, what we
need is not to scream about the unfair treatment. Force is required,
but force requires reasoning that the other side can accept. When we
are unsure just what our commonly accepted values are, or when we have not
established those values yet, it becomes very hard to convince others.
The whole thing becomes burdensome and futile.

When the criticisms from others are baseless, or even erroneous, you show
the evidence that they are wrong. But boycotts and counter-criticisms
may have the opposite effect in modern society. This is not because
you don't have reason on your side. But when you boycott and
counter-criticize, it can create feelings of extremism and
totalitarianism. For this reason, freedom of speech is regarded as a
universal value. With freedom of speech, mistakes (or even malicious
slander) in a mature society can be restricted or punished through an
independent judiciary system. By contrast, a mass critcism session
will only create the impression of a society that bans diversified
voices. In truth, this is how a society without diversified voices
acts.

Everybody cares about the impression of other people. Over recent
years, many Americans are frustrated over their sagging international image
due to American government policies. The worries of the people will be
reflected in the upcoming voting if they want to have change. For the
Chinese, they want to show an open, prosperous China to the world through
the Olympics. The Chinese people obviously share that goal. But
the issue is about how to export certain values and voices. Actually,
if these values are universal, then they will gain resonance and
acceptance. It is only that people had not been acquainted or realized
this previously.

On June 19, a post titled <What happened here? Southwestern
University pretty girl became Sichuan earthquake victim?> appeared at the
Southwestern Normal University forum.

The post was accompanied by a photo of the Chengdu memorial wall for the
victims of the Wenchuan earthquake. Among those photos was one of
Southwestern Normal University 'pretty queen' Han Shan. Many
commentators noted that this was the well-recognized photo of Han Shan who
had been very hot on the Internet once upon a time.

The memorial wall is located at the Daba Jianchuan Museum in
Chengdu. The memorial wall was part of an exhibit which included more
than 4,000 artefacts recovered from the rubble. Most striking was the
memorial wall of photos of the earthquake victims, measuring four meters
tall and more than 20 meters wide. There were almost 5,000
photos. Candles and joss sticks were lit in front of the wall.

Where did the museum collect its photos from? According to the
person in charge, the hotos came from several websiet that specialized in
collecting such photos. Why did Han Shan's photo appear here?
The explanation was that they were in a hurry to prepare this wall and they
did not have enough photos. So they downloaded some photos from the
Internet, printed them and posted them on the wall without verifying that
these people were earthquake victims.

Reporter: Are you aware tht your photo is on the Chengdu memorial wall
for earthquake victims?
Han Shan: I know.

Reporter: Did this impact you?
Han Shan: Of course. Relatives and friends were calling to see if I
was alright.

Reporter: You are supposed to be a "pretty queen" of the
Southerwestern Normal University?
Han Shan: Yes. I participated in the "pretty university
queens" context organized by a certain media outlet.

Reporter: How do you view this mistake of the organizers?
Han Shan: The organizers have been quite irresponsible in running this
activity. It has caused unnecessary scares and worries.

At the 3rd International Art Biennale China 2008, there is a sculture of
a Qing dynasty female palace attendant sitting semi-nude but her vulva is
covered up by a white tower. According to the sculptor, the figure was
based upon the Empress Dowager Cixi and the white towel was not in the
original design. "The sculture was submitted for review and the
relevant department did not object." But on the afternoon of
opening day , the organizers claimed that there was a complaint from an
audience member. Therefore, a white towel had to used to cover up the
private parts of the Empress Dowager.

Recently, a series of photos that seemingly come from Amnesty International has been drawing
attention in China. These photos became prominent for seemingly winning a bronze
lion prize for the TBWA agency at the Cannes International Advertising
Festival. The photos included three Olympic ' sports' (swimming,
weightlifting and archery) to highlight the abuse of prisoners in
China. You can click on the photos above to access the high-resolution
ones.

The words at the bottom righthand side of the photos are:
AFTER THE OLYMPIC GAMES,
THE FIGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS MUST GO ON.WWW.AMNESTY.COM

In June 19, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson JIang Yu said:
"Amnesty International is an orgainziation with a persistent prejudice
against China. It frequently issues irresponsible reports to attack
China. Its words does not have the public trust." China
Society for Human Rights Studies vice-chairman Chen Shiqiu said:
"Amnesty Internatonal chose to issue these anti-China ads right before
the Olympics for the purpose of smearing the image of China with the pretext
of defending human rights. They want to disrupt China's goals for
peace, stability, ethnic unity and social progress."

But here is the trick: Amnesty International's website is
Amnesty.org. The photos here are signed for Amnesty.com. If you
go to Amnesty.com, it is a domain name for sale. So who is paying for
these print ads? To what purpose?

A campaign about the Beijing Olympics produced for Amnesty International
France was considered so aggressive by its creators that they decided to
call off its release.

Advertising agency TBWA\Paris did however seek permission from their
client to present the project at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. And
it even received a prize. Since then the images, which show Chinese
prisoners tortured with the help of Olympics sports equipment, have been
circulated on blogs and forums in China, causing outrage in the country.